All Forum Posts by: Cheryle Patterson

I can't believe the tone of some of the answers to Aaron. This is a business and a landlord should treat it as such. Try telling a bank to just forgive the late fees that are built into their contract and see how well it goes over.  My personal opinion is that a landlord needs to enforce their lease.  I am not against telling the tenant that I am willing to work with them this one time; providing that they have let me know in advance and I am not chasing them.  My lease is an automatic late fee of $50 for anything that arrives after the 5th of the month and $5 per day for any additional day.  I have forgiven the daily fee but NEVER the automatic $50.  I want my tenants to know that paying me late is more painful that paying their car payment or student loan late. My rentals are mainly student housing and are in high demand based on location. I have learned the hard way that educating my tenants early and firmly works best for me. Bottom line, you will have to weigh out what works for your business.  Good Luck and don't let the "You are a rotten person for charging too much for a late fee" people get you down.

I would go with your gut. Professionally installed and tenant either must restore to original condition or leave the rack upon move-out.

Also the beauty of renting by the bedroom and by the semester is that the individual student is responsible for a 5 month lease and it is easy to put up with anyone for that short of time.  Plus you always have a new crop of potential tenants each semester. Having said that I have kept 2 tenants for over 4 years and hope that both of them continue their quest for advanced degrees.....lol

We have owned and operated a private dorm 1 block from our local university since 2006. Ours is set up as 16 individual furnished rooms with their own private baths.  8 rooms on each floor share a common fully equipped kitchen, TV area, sitting area, dining area and 2 laundry rooms on each end. We rent each room individually by the semester. We were also able to get "in" with the University International Department which makes it so much easier as the Dept actually signs the leases, pays the rent and deals with any problems we may have with the students. This is not only our favorite rental property it is also our biggest revenue generator.  We found the biggest draw back to doing Fraternity/Sorority housing is the lack of home insurance competition. 

Seller purchased the property over a year ago. Occupant claims to have been living there for 4 months and claims that the landlord comes by and collects the rent in cash. Claims to have a lease and seller's agent said she saw a partial lease but was missing the signature page.  Seller is aware of the occupancy but has done nothing to evict and is unwilling to.  I would actually be ok with keeping tenant IF I knew what the rent was , how long the lease is for and what other liabilities I may be taking on.  What if she claims she is rent to own or has a massive security deposit? I am unaware of squatters rights compared to a buyer.

We have found a wonderful investment opportunity for a 3 unit rental within a block of popular college campus.  The current owner purchased the property a little over a year ago in foreclosure.  We have come together on price but are having a huge scasim over an occupant in one of the units.  The current owner is out of state but is aware that one of the units is occupied.  We have spoken with the occupant and she claims she and her disabled son have been renting the palce for 4 months.  The seller says she does not pay him rent and he has no lease. I have no idea if she is a squatter as it appears that she is paying rent to someone who is not the owner of the property.  I tried to make (1)  a copy of the lease and (2) letter that seller has no security deposit to transfer to buyer as part of the offer. The seller is balking that he cannot provide this and the property is to be sold as is with a self-serving addendum that we will not sign on advice from our attny.  The addendum seems to be common with foreclosures but this is NOT a foreclosure now. I really want to purchase this property but am really scared about the potential liabilites from this squatter. Any advice?

How do you find an ex-tenants forwarding address if they refuse to give it to you. I want to sue a former tenant for damages exceeding the security depost.